- This event has passed.
Trails and Ways, Makeunder, Acid Ghost
$10 – $12
From overgrown houses in north Oakland, Trails and Ways make guitar pop, thick with warm noise, driving beats, four voices, and the open chords of bossa nova. Take college commune roommates, have them live for stints in Brazil and Spain, bring them home together with the sparks of songs, see what catches flame.
Early singles “Nunca” and “Mtn Tune” rocketed them to the top of the blogosphere charts, followed by national tours and opening spots for Tycho, Stars, and Mac DeMarco. Debut album Pathology landed in 2015, earning the band a spot on Barsuk Records and São Paulo’s Balaclava Records, and launching the band to shows across North America and Brazil.
Their lyrics and stands for environmental & social justice led Time Magazine to call them “decidedly political”, their sound “lush and worldly”. FADER says they’re “seriously encouraging me to switch from blue jeans to bathing suits until further notice.” 32 Ft/Sec blog says “The party, the Good Life, is out there somewhere, likely south and it sounds exactly like this.”
Makeunder is the moniker of songwriter Hamilton Ulmer. Trained as a composer, Ulmer’s work is the byproduct of a seismic collision between symphonic and pop music, part Richard Wagner and David Byrne, part Bélá Bartók and Stevie Wonder, part Benny Goodman and Dirty Projectors. 2015 saw the release of Makeunder’s Great Headless Blank, a six-song EP about the circumstances and consequences of Ulmer’s father’s passing from lung cancer. NPR Music’s Bob Boilen called it “one of the most outstanding and challenging new bits of music I’ve heard this year […] “Great Headless Blankâ€Â is punctuated by sax and claps that glue the off-kilter soaring vocals like fingers holding onto a cliff. I sensed the song was about desperation and hope but honestly I was simply fascinated by a sound filled with choral harmonies and influences that could include Béla Bartók or Ornette Coleman or Talking Heads.”
Doors 9pm, 21+